


Revelations

by Mistery Man (Mre97)



Series: Synthesis [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Multi, Sequel, Steven Universe Future
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:55:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25769284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mre97/pseuds/Mistery%20Man
Summary: Sequel to Awakening, read first or none of this will make sense!More than a year after re-establishing her court, Pink Diamond is content that her reforms are slowly starting to sink in, ending the gem caste system in her colony. However, news of a successful experiment will soon draw the attention of the other Diamonds, and they might not be all that happy with her when they get a close look at what she's doing.
Series: Synthesis [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1490627
Comments: 39
Kudos: 67





	1. Catching Up

Rose Quartz laid back on the beach, her eyes closed as she took in the sounds of the ocean waves and the feeling of the sand beneath her, a wide smile on her face as she relaxed. She had so few opportunities to do this nowadays, to slip into the form that, despite all her time as Pink Diamond, still felt like her true self and just… slip away from her life, her responsibilities. She couldn’t make a habit of it, and she always made sure a select few knew where she was when she did, but when the stress of living as a Diamond got to her, she found a way to come here, to a familiar beach beside a solid stone hand buried in the sand.

“Rose.” Pearls voice cut through her solitude as the thin gem silently walked towards her. “I figured I should let you know, Bismuth will be coming by around an hour after sunrise, and I know you two are… improving, but…” She shrugged.

With a sigh, Rose pulled herself to her feet, a pang of regret running through her.  _ It was nice while it lasted… I am not in the mood for another confrontation with Bismuth.  _ The two gems had, over the last year and a half, spoken a little over once a month. Last months discussion had even ended before any voices were raised, which Pearl viewed as a sign of improvement, but Rose was in no rush to see if they could do the same today. Facing Pearl with a smile, she replied “Well, I think I’ve spent long enough relaxing here, it’s time to get back to work.”

“Yes well, unfortunately life does seem rather busy nowadays, doesn’t it?” Pearl responded as she set off towards the beach house, her slender form drawing Rose’s eye as she walked behind. Ahead of them loomed the large form of obsidian, made so long ago when they all had shared a common purpose…  _ but there’s no point regretting it now, you have millenia to make it up to them… if you can.  _

Shaking away the intrusive thoughts, Rose looked over the expanded house nestled in the lap of the temple, two stories of timber contrasting against the mossy stone with a glass dome at the top holding the relocated warp pad. Walking up the stairs, Rose could hear movement inside despite the early hour, and as the pair slipped inside she was greeted with a sight that made her heart break.

Steven was sitting at the table, a groggy expression on his face as he ate a bowl of cereal, a backpack loaded with books and other school supplies sitting on the floor next to his chair. As the door opened, he looked up, surprise on his face. “Mom? I thought you left last night after dinner.”

“I should have, but… I just had a hard time leaving, going back to pretending to be someone else… so I spent a night out in the sand.” She replied, guilt washing over her as she thought of all the responsibilities she was dodging just to stay on Earth a little while longer…

“Mom, it’s fine, everyone needs breaks, even my therapist takes vacations.” Steven replies, snapping her out of her thoughts. “You deserve to be happy too, that’s one of the big things I learned in therapy.”

“Steven is right Rose, one night to relax isn’t the end of the world.” Pearl said as she cleaned one of the swords from her collection, the sharp point gleaming in the light of the kitchen.

“I… you’re right, you both are.” Rose replied, shaking her head as she walked towards the stairs. “What would I do without you two?”

“Get the same advice from Dad?” “Have the multiple members of your court who know the truth tell you the same thing?” Pearl and Steven said together, pausing to share a grin.

Throwing up her hands, Rose said “Fine, fine, you win! I won’t try to compliment you any more!” She chuckled, turning towards the stairs to the new warp pad chamber… only to be stopped as she ran into a solid wall of pink fur.

“Lion! There you are, ready to take me to school? Come on, I know Mister Hawthorne has those jumbo treats you like a lot today, he gets a new case every thursday.” Steven says, hiking up his backpack and walking towards Lion, who licked his lips at the mention of treats. Hiking himself up on top of the large cat, he looked over to the room. “Bye mom! Bye Pearl, have a good day at Little Homeschool!”

Rose chuckled and shook her head. “I still can’t believe you let him name it.” She told Pearl.

“Well, it is an amusing play on words, and around half of the student body views the reference in a positive light. On that note, it seems the integration of former Homeworld loyalists into the ‘Society of the Future!’ is taking place nicely.” Pearl replied.

Rose nods as she heads up the stairs, reaching the warp pad as Pearl follows beside her, still cleaning her sword. “Why do you always say it like that? ‘The Society of the Future!’” Rose said, putting great emphasis on the words. “I’ve heard you do it for months now, and I tried to figure out why, but I’m still nowhere near figuring it out.”

Pearl stifled a laugh as she put the sword away in her gem. “Oh, it was Connie and Steven’s idea. They have insisted that I emphasise certain phrases because it ‘makes them sound more epic’. I’ve mainly been doing it to humor them, but I must admit it has some appeal.”

Rose let out a soft laugh, regret tinging her voice.  _ If I was here more I’d have been able to see that…  _ she thought, a soft sigh as she was forced to face the fact that she could only be in one place at once.  _ And speaking of that…  _ “I think it’s time for me to  _ get changed  _ and head back. I’ll try to swing by… in a month. Hopefully.” And with that, light engulfed her form, and Rose Quartz once again took on the shape of Pink Diamond. Pearl, to her credit, seemed to take the transformation much better than Rose/Pink did.

“I look forward to it.” The slender gem responded as Pink Diamond stepped onto the pad, disappearing in a flash of light.

\-----

Back at her colony, Pink found herself walking through a collection of buildings that, despite being clearly built by gems, would send any Homeworld architect into a fit with how many rules of the trade had been broken. The reforms to her court, although nowhere near as extensive as the freedom given to the small colony on Earth, were a widespread success, and the builders, artists, and other creative gems of her court had taken to it with gusto. As she stepped out of the warp pad, a trio of Rose Quartzes ( _ Actual Rose Quartzes  _ a voice whispered in her mind, causing her to force it down and continue walking) formed up behind her, casually walking along like they were out for a stroll, their eyes sweeping their surroundings as they played up the stereotype of Quartzes being lazy slackers. It was a disguise that many gems believed wholeheartedly, and Pink almost wished someone would try to attack her one day, just so she could see the look on their face as the “lazy quartzes” jumped into action.

The small group walked along a wide road carved in the side of a mountain between the warp pad and the spire, with Pink taking a moment to look out over the massive construction efforts going on around her. Her spire sat in a dip below two peaks, with the massive glass domed top rising a few stories above them. On the slopes to either side of the spire a massive network of roads had divided the mountainside into plots of land, where builders had constructed experimental buildings of all styles and colors, experimenting and bending or breaking every rule of gem architecture in the process. The result, somehow, was actually pleasing to look at, an expression of freedom and ingenuity that did not fully abandon the core of what made a gem a gem.

The greatest change however, was not in architecture, but in attitude. As she walked up the road to the spire, Pink was not greeted with bows and salutes, with all other gems turning towards her respectfully as she passed by. Oh, there were salutes, and the crowds did part for her without her saying a word, but it was a start. She felt herself flush with embarrassment the way she always did when crowds of gems she didn’t know praised her, but at this point she was finally reaching the point where she was, if not used to it, then not in the mood to stop it either. Stepping into the spire, she watched as the gems of her court mixed around, discussing the business of the day with a sort of excited energy, the old caste barriers destroyed as gems that previously never would have been in those roles took to their new work with enthusiasm, with previously homogenous clusters of gems broken up in a wide variety of colors and shapes as they went about their days.

The aristocratic core of her court had gone through a bit of a rough patch when the reforms were introduced, but constant pressure from their Diamond, as well as the implied support of the other Diamonds for this “test” that Pink had been running, had smoothed over many ruffled feathers. Combined with the massive shifting of new gems into the court, as Rubies worked alongside Opals and Bismuths worked alongside Tourmalines, the hardliners found themselves increasingly isolated in the spire that many of them had viewed as a symbol of their superiority to the rest of the gems in the colony.

Entering the throne room at the top of the spire was also completely different than it had been before the reforms. Now, unencumbered by the need to put on the air of being the perfect Diamond, Pink felt free to turn the room into a large greenhouse, exotic plants from both Earth and her new colony world growing throughout the glass dome as stone paths lead from the staircase to her throne in the center, where a small pavilion gave her a place to greet petitioners. Stepping off the throne to join the groups that had come to her for help always gave her a nice feeling, as if she was removing the separation between herself and the gems of her court.

Pink smiled as those memories flowed through her mind, sitting up on her throne with a sigh before pulling up her work station, preparing for another long day of trying to make things just a little bit better. As she did, she noticed a report flagged as  URGENT  and opened it up.

_ My Diamond _

_ Following the successful isolation of what exactly is drained from the ground in the creation of a new gem in experiment 27-T, a subsequent round of testing, the 28 series, began to determine if the addition of these materials at the same rate the process drains them through Rose Quartz tears, the growth of select organic life forms, and addition of synthetic chemicals would be sufficient to prevent permanent damage to the planet. _

_ As of this morning, test 28-L concluded following extensive calibration of growth circumstances and the makeup of the added materials. Preliminary analysis indicates no long term damage, however a single test growing a single gem is insufficient data to determine the true effects of the process. _

_ With your permission, I have drawn up a plan for a large-scale test, which will create 100 gems of various types. If this is successful, then we may have finally found a method to produce gems without harming the organic life on a planet permanently. _

_ May we begin final testing? _ __  
_  
_ Pink took a moment to reflect on that note, a bit surprised by it.  __ After all this time, thousands of years of struggling, all the suffering I didn’t do enough to stop… and once I put the resources I need into it, we have a promising solution in two years.  She mused as she wrote a simple reply.

_ Yes _

\-----

Back on Earth, as his mother got to work on running a planet, Steven Universe went to school. The contrast between their daily lives was sharp, and it had taken months for Steven to accept that he didn’t have to jump in and help her out with everything, especially after she explained that he would just make things more complicated by raising questions like “Why is the Rose Quartz Hybrid here?”

Of course his life was not exactly “normal” just because he couldn’t travel between planets to work on reforming the gem empire, and his arrival at school showed that off amazingly well. 

With a roar and a flash of pink light, Lion leaped onto the grass in front of the school, a couple dozen yards from the busses unloading hundreds of teenagers. At this point, two weeks into the school year, the novelty of the pudgy kid with a shiny belly button riding to school on a giant pink lion was wearing off, and the glances and hushed discussion had mostly retreated to about the same level as if Steven was riding to school in a particularly nice car, which suited Steven just fine. He had inherited his mothers discomfort with crowds looking up to him in awe after all.

With Steven still on his back, Lion plodded along the grass to an open classroom window, peeking inside at the teacher behind his desk. “Good morning Mister Hawthorne!” Steven greeted his first period English teacher with a smile.

“Steven! Good to see you, you look like you’re having a good day.” The balding dark-skinned man replied, pulling out a box of jumbo pet treats as Lion gave him his best sad kitten impression.

“Yeah, Mom stopped by last night, stayed for dinner and everything!”

“It has been a while since your mother stopped by, hasn’t it? I suppose you had a good time then?”

“Well… yeah, she has a lot of work, and it’s really far away… I’m glad she could stop by though.” Steven says as he slides up and into the classroom through the open window, pulling a chuckle from his teacher.

“Steven, you know the principal has told me I need to stop letting you come in through the window like that.” He chided as Lion scarfed down the treat. “Just think of the example it is setting for the other students here.”

Steven nodded as he stretched out, waving Lion goodbye before the large cat disappeared in another flash of light. “Sorry, it’s just so much easier when Lion is already there, and the window is open, and I just don’t really think about it that much. I’ll try to do better.”

“Well, that’s all we can ever hope for, isn’t it?” came the reply. “Now, you have a while before class starts, I’m sure you don’t want to just sit around and chat with me until then, you should go see your friends.”

“I think I’ll stay, I’ll see my friends at lunch, and you look lonely here all alone.” Steven said, putting a soft smile on his teachers face.

The rest of his school day passed by without much fanfare, he went to class, turned in homework, spent lunch with Connie, Pedee, and a few others he had met over the last year of school, and at the end of the day him and Connie hopped up on Lion and swung by The Farm, the small patch of land around Lapis and Peridots barn that had become center stage for the gems on Earth. Compared to his mom's colony, The Farm was much less planned, with its buildings taking a lot more inspiration from human designs and only the barest semblance of a grid system laid down by Pearl to keep the paths between buildings rational. Many of the buildings were coated with greenery, Peridot and Lapis’s influence on the construction, and the shining metals of most gem construction was replaced with solid stone, brick, or timber.

In the center of it all, surrounded by a well tended garden and with a small pool of water out front, was the barn, Peridot and Lapis’s home, and Steven and Connie's destination. Slipping off of Lions back, the two slip inside to a crowded, messy building that somehow still worked, despite the Meep Morps mixing with the advanced imaging equipment Peridot used to analyse him, and the massive gem computer near the back that Peridot mostly used to watch sappy sitcoms and rom-coms when she wasn’t ‘unveiling the secrets of the mixture of biology and gems!’.

“Oh good, you two are here! I have big news!” The small green gem said, popping up and running to them excitedly.

“Did they release the CPH reboot trailer?!” Steven asked as Connie stifled a giggle.

“No, Bett- actually no it’s not better, but it’s still good!” Peridot said, grabbing each of them by the hand and dragging them over to the station. “I have received word that Pink Diamond is going to finally begin experiments in sustainable gem production, and once she does that means we will have a source of blank, lifeless gems… perfect for testing my theories on human gem hybrids!” She nearly leaped with joy.

Steven and Connie were both speechless as they heard her talk. For them, the last year since the gems had been uncorrupted en-masse had been simple, routine, their time focusing on “gem stuff” giving way to the concerns of being human teenagers. Now it looked like that was changing, and for better or worst, “gem business” was about to dominate their lives again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I am back! This story is set after the timeskip I mentioned prior to the hiatus, which was about 15 months or so (from a bit before summer school starts, skipping over a school year to the start of the next one), and I hope I did a good job setting that up.
> 
> I'll be exploring a bit of what everyone has been up to with the next update in two weeks, and with a chapter of short (500 words each or so) stories set during the timeskip.
> 
> As always, thank you to everyone who leaves kudos and/or comments! Feedback is how I know I'm not just rambling into the void and that people actually are reading what I write.


	2. Chapter 2

For the last year or so, Pink Diamond had been able to fall into a bit of a routine, slowly transforming her court into something resembling the Crystal Gems in their prime even as the actual Crystal Gems on Earth slowly integrated former comrades and enemies into the new society being constructed there. Sure, keeping the more objectionable parts of her agenda hidden from her fellow Diamonds, and hiding from her court that she didn’t have their approval for her more radical changes, had taken up a bit of her time… well, a lot of her time, but it had gotten easier with practice.

Now though, that all had been thrown into disarray. Now her colony was finally producing new gems, her methods had been successful, and the research into human gem hybrids was gathering steam, and the most recent discussion she had had with Blue and Yellow Diamond had left her on edge. 

_ “We are pleased to hear that your experiment has succeeded Pink” Yellow told her with a grin. _

_ “Yes, and I do look forward to seeing all the new architecture you were experimenting with for your capital, it sounds lovely.” Blue added in that tone that made it hard to tell if she was sincere or if she just wanted another opportunity to treat Pink like a baby. _

Shaking her head, Pink snapped back to reality and sighed.  _ Blue and Yellow… might accept what i have done, if only because undoing it would mean war with my court… but White? White has made her laws clear, she refuses to budge from her ideal of perfection, and as long as she does then nothing I have built will be safe. _

Standing in the garden that surrounded her throne, the glass dome overhead focusing the light of the rising sun into the small patch of color at the peak of her spire, she considered her options very, very carefully.  _ Keeping the changes hidden while I build up strength is going to be difficult, and if I am not on my guard all the time then White will discover me… but I don’t have the power to force her to back off right now. _

“Still thinkin’ about Diamond stuff?” Spinel’s voice cut through her thoughts. “I mean, you’ve got a nice pose goin on, and that’s your thinking face you’re wearing, so I’m assuming it’s something serious.” The smaller pink gem said as she lounged on a bed of vines between a pair of trees brought in from the tropical part of this colony.

“My ‘thinking face’?” Pink asked with a grin as she looked over at her companion. “And yes, I am. I still have no idea how I’m going to handle the other Diamonds… secrets always get out, and when this one does, it’s going to literally turn the entire empire upside down.” She sighed, looking out over the random, barely planned cluster of buildings along the mountain by the spire, the fruits of a years labor by gems working based on what they wanted instead of what they were told to do, a setup that could all come tumbling down if the other Diamonds decided to end her experiment.

“Huh… you should put on that thinking face more often, you’re pretty good at using it when you bother to give it a shot.” Spinel noted with a grin, stretching one arm out to grab a branch and pull herself out of the vines, landing on the ground nearby as casually as if she was made of rubber. “Why not just stab them?”

Pink looked over at Spinel, convinced that the other gem was just joking… until she saw her face. “What? I can’t… how would stabbing the other Diamonds solve anything?” She asked, confusion on her face as she looked over the smaller gem, seeing no signs of humor.

Spinel just shrugged. “What, their forms go poof, you take their gems, then you tell their courts to do things your way, and because you’re the only Diamond around you get your way. One two three, you win.”

“First off,” Pink stumbled for the words to respond “how am I supposed to get close enough to any of them to ‘just stab them’? Second, what am I supposed to do if their courts decide to disagree with me? If Yellows court launched an attack to retrieve her, we wouldn’t be able to fight them off, anymore than if they came here under her orders to put us back in line with the empires laws. Heck, even Blue’s guards would be able to overrun us and White… alright I don’t actually think White has any guards or court… but that just brings up the problem of how the heck I am supposed to take out White, by myself?”

Spinel listened and nodded along to all her points. “Well, it’ll be better than standing here worrying about what will happen when they find out. Trust me, standing around and worrying while other gems do whatever they want is not a situation you want to be in.”

The mention of her abandonment in The Garden caused Pink nearly physical pain, regret nearly two years old swelling to the surface as she felt her former best friend’s words cut deep. “I… I understand, but doing something just for the sake of doing something is also a very, very bad idea. If we don’t act carefully, we could end up hurting ourselves.” She turned and began to walk down the stairs, determination on her face. “But you are right, we need to do something, and I’m going to go figure out what.”

As Pink stepped out of the throne room, Spinel’s face twitched, a smile forming on her features. “Atta girl.” She said, slipping down the stairs after her.

\-----

Downstairs, the Mountain Spire was a hub of bustling activity, with Pink Diamond standing head and shoulders above the rest, making it very easy for anyone to see her coming even if the crowd parting respectfully wasn’t enough of a clue. For the Pink Courts chief investigators, who despite the title spent very little of their time investigating anything, a visit from the boss was a normal part of their work day.

Iolite focused on her work, giving her Diamond a respectful nod as the only way of acknowledging her existence as she compiled reports and data from the various studies of the one human-gem hybrid in existence. Despite biological research not being her purpose, she had quickly turned into Pinks go-to source for researching Steven, successfully transferring her skills at analyzing data from her time as an investigator of supply shortages and corruption in the court to the ability to compile and make sense of the data produced by the local Peridot and the human doctor that she had roped into the project.

Meanwhile, her assistant and partner, a Fire Opal named Aurora, greeted Spinel with a smile that the jester returned, the two quickly striking up a conversation on the changes they had seen in the court since the news of the success of the sustainable gem experiments had broken.

“I think a lot of gems are waiting to see just how this whole process is going to affect the internal dynamics of the court. We just managed to get settled down from the end of the caste system and gems starting to mix, and now the status quo is going to get blown up by a whole bunch of new gems. Everyone is just waiting to see how this is going to play out.” Aurora confided.

“Well, sounds like a lot of gems need to learn a lesson in being open minded. They shouldn’t be all cautious about new gems, they should be excited! New people to meet, new friends to make… honestly, I thought they learned this lesson already.”

“Well, it’s not like we’re seeing the hostility we saw toward ending the caste system…” The two gems conversation petered out of Pinks focus as Iolite finished her work, closing her workstation and turning to the much, much taller Diamond.

“Hello, what brings you down here?” She asked, her tone professional even as she eschewed the traditional greetings of a gem to their Diamond, a sign of both the successes of the reforms and the respect the two had for each other.

“Well, I have a bit of a problem…” Pink looked around, making sure they weren’t overheard before leaning in. “If we have another surprise visit from another Diamond, say because they heard about the experiments success, how quickly can we hide the most obvious violations of Diamond Authority laws, and how can we do that without letting on that the other Diamonds don’t know exactly how far I pushed their ‘you can conduct your experiments with your colony’ approval?”

Iolite simply looked at her and sighed. “Those are very good questions to ask, questions I have asked myself regularly.”

Pink frowned at those words. “Well… what answers have you come up with?”

“For the first, the court could reach a state that resembles partial obedience to the caste system, at least to the point of manual labor gems being separate from aristocratic gems who are separate from technical gems, in a matter of three hours or less, and assuming unimpaired access to the warp network and a visit focused on a single location on the colony, that location can be made presentable in a half hour, give or take a few minutes. For the second… it would be difficult. We could always spin a story that, while they approve your actions in a theoretical sense, they wish for a more traditional environment while visiting, however at this point, with the old caste system crushed and the old guard accepting of reality, the bigger concern is that such an action could cause fear that the other Diamonds will attempt to re-create the caste system, and at that point…” Iolite shook her head. “Fearful gems make mistakes, they do things that are hard to predict, and they can convince themselves that some truly dangerous actions are necessary to defeat whatever is scaring them. Fear could cause far more problems than a reactionary backlash.”

Pink sighed, taking in the analysis with a heavy heart.  _ Alright, that fits with some of my worst fears about how this could all come crumbling down  _ she thought with a sigh, exhausted as she realized how likely it was that everything she had worked for would crumble down around her ears, swept away by the other Diamonds reaction or-

“However, in my personal opinion as long as you show the same level of leadership you have so far the odds of the gems of this court truly doing something foolish enough to bring in unwanted attention is minimal.” The small purple gem finalizes. “The situation is more secure than it appears, as between the gems here and on Earth, if a recreation of the Crystal Gem revolt was necessary victory would be much more likely, especially given our access to faster than light vessels to allow us multiple fronts, Aurora has in been modeling potential strategies in her spare time, it appears to be a passion of some sorts for her.”

Pink turned over to the orange Fire Opal just in time to catch the end of her panicked waving for her comrade to shut up. Seeing her Diamonds gaze on her, the other gem drew herself up and added “well, technically it’s just a thought exercise, but if I’m being honest ever since the war and learning that I should have been a Quartz if it wasn’t for some incompetent technician I’ve been interested in this sort of thing, so…” she trailed off as Pink nodded.

“I see. Thank you for your willingness to help plan for the worst possible outcome, but I well and truly hope that it is not necessary. War is a terrible, terrible thing.” Turning back to Iolite, Pink looked over the small gem and sighed. “And thank you for your help. I have a lot to think about now.” With that, she turned and began to walk away, her mind racing as she considered all her options.

_ Well, one thing’s for sure: between getting these new gems integrated into the court, figuring out how to handle any “inspections” from the other Diamonds, and handling anything else that might show up… I am glad I spent a long time on Earth the last time I visited. It might be the last time I get to go there for a while. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, bit of a shorter chapter today, and no Steven section.
> 
> This chapter honestly is mostly setup for the future, so I don't expect that great a response from it, but hey without setup plotlines feel short and rushed, so it's got to be written.
> 
> Anyway, thank you to everyone who reads this story, I appreciate you all!


	3. Chapter 3

On Earth, at the same time as his mother was worrying and fretting about the fate of her colony and a potential war, Steven Universe was working on his homework. The last couple years had seen his priorities shift from “go on missions to save the Earth” to “I need to study for my history test Friday”, a shift that when combined with regular therapy visits had dramatically improved his state of mind, leaving him much, much happier about everything in his life. There were still lingering issues, his desire to take responsibility for everything, to play peacemaker and meddle in the lives of people around him to make them get along were all things he had been made aware of and focused on, but for the most part his life was much closer to that of a normal human teen his age than it had been.

Of course, that’s only if you ignore that he rides to school on a pink lion that makes portals when it roars and lives on the front steps of an ancient temple constructed by a race of aliens, but every family has their little quirks. Of course, as he worked through a dense, verbose chapter of english literature, the sort of reading that all high school students hate and all high schools force their students to read for some reason, he noticed all the gems coming and going through the beach house.

With a burst of light, Bismuth appeared on the warp pad, a grin on her face as she stepped down. “Steven!” She said, patting him on the back as she looked down at the book. “More of that school stuff again? You still reading about those angry grapes or whatever?”

“No Bismuth, that book was part of my summer reading, this is the first book of the school year.” Steven replied, grateful for the excuse to take a break from reading, even if it did not save him entirely.

“Huh, you guys have to read a lot of stuff.” The blacksmith commented. “Why do they make you do all this stuff again? I know that humans aren’t made with all the knowledge they need like gems are, but I still don’t get what the point of reading a bunch of stories.”

“Well, every teacher at school says it's so I know a little bit of everything, so I can pick what I want to do later and not have to start from nothing.” Steven answered. “And I thought that sounded a lot like all the talk about how gems should be free to pick what they want to do, so…” he shrugged, meeting Bismuths eyes with a casual smile.

The blacksmith grinned, giving him a pat on the back that was almost powerful enough to knock him off his feet. Thankfully, nearly two years of experience with her pats on the back had both helped her moderate her strength, and him brace himself. Looking down at him she laughed. “Well I can’t argue with that. Guess that’s where Pearl got that idea she was talking about a while back…” Bismuth trailed off, absorbed in her own thoughts about Pearl, thoughts that Steven was doing his best to stay out of.

“Yeah, Pearl does have a lot of good ideas about school, she’s very passionate about all that stuff…” Steven trailed off as he heard the sound of the portal to the temple opening, thankful that there was a distraction from the meddling voice in his head telling him to meddle and try to figure out Bismuths feelings for Pearl and how that could interact with Pearls feelings for his mom and how that impacted her and his dad…  _ It’s not my business, it’s not my job to fix everyone around me.  _ He repeated in his head, remembering the advice his therapist had given him as he saw Pearl step through the door. “Hey Pearl! We were just talking about school and stuff!” He greeted her.

“Oh, well how nice!” Pearl said, fixing them both with a smile. “I hope you’re not talking about school as an excuse to get out of doing your homework though, you’re only hurting yourself by putting it off.” She said gently, causing his face to flush as Bismuth smiled at her.

“Wait, Steven, is that true? You were just using me, as a distraction?” Bismuth asked, playing up how hurt she was for comedic effect before turning to Pearl. “But no, I asked him what he was doing, so if anything I’m distracting him.”

Pearl tutted at the blacksmith, shaking her head with a smile. “Well, I suppose a bit of a break now and then is necessary, just to keep you on track. I do hope that you aren’t to distracting Bismuth, I remember that one time we needed to infiltrate a stronghold with you as the diversion, and if you were distracting him as much as those guards were he might not get his homework done at all!” She sighed, remembering old battles.

“Heh, yeah me and Crazy Lace were talking about that the other day when she came by my forge, she said you apparently took out a squad of Jaspers with your bare hands, how come I never heard that before?” Bismuth asked, a wide grin on her face. From what Steven had seen, the older Crystal Gems were much more willing to talk about the war, now that many of their old friends were back and uncorrupted. 

“Oh, that wasn’t a big deal, compared to a lot of the things we got up to in that fight. And it wasn’t my bare hands, I stole one of their swords and poofed her comrades with it before taking her out, really wasn’t that much more impressive than any other fight I did with my swords. Besides, the real hero there, other than you with your distraction, was Ro…” Pearl froze, remembering a bit too late that not only was the secret out of the bag, not everyone who knew it had made their peace with it the way Steven and the others had.

Bismuth sighed, her good mood gone. “Yeah, Rose Quartz, the big hero.” She muttered, turning to the door.

“Bismuth…”

“See you around Pearl, you to Steven.” And with that Bismuth stepped out, leaving the two of them behind, awkwardness hanging in the air between them.

“So… what are you up to Pearl?” Steven asked, trying to change the subject to something a bit less awkward, something that Pearl seemed very happy to go along with.

“Oh, well…” her gem glowed and a personal schedule popped out into her hand, where she read it out loud. “I have a meeting scheduled with a few gems to talk about their plans for a new subterranean fighting ring to avoid the space limitations they would have on the surface, then Doctor Maheswaran has invited me to tea with a few of her colleagues and Peridot, which I believe was mainly so I could step in if Peridot started calling them all clods again, as she assured me that ingesting tea was not a necessary part of the occasion so long as I sat between Peridot and the other humans. After that, it’s back to Little Homeschool to mediate a meeting on renaming it to something that ‘has less pro-Diamond connotations’ and keeping the Pink Diamond loyalists who are here with us from fighting with the gems who think Pink is just a temporary ally against the other Diamonds… and then I should be home in time for movie night, but if I’m not I’ll only be a few minutes late.” She listed off, satisfaction in her voice at having planned her day out so thoroughly.

“Wow, sounds like you have a lot of work to do, and that’s just this afternoon!” Steven said, looking down at his book, feeling guilt that all he had planned was finishing his homework and talking to Connie. “If you want, I could stop by for the meeting, I could help with… something, I guess.” He frowned as she shook her head at him.

“Steven, I know you want to help, but… well… you love your mother, and I’m the last person to say there’s anything wrong with that, but there are going to be a lot of rude things said about her at this meeting.” Seeing him about to interject, she pointed to the book he was supposed to be reading and the stack of textbooks next to it. “And besides, you still have homework to do.”

Steven winced at the reminder, internally kicking himself for forgetting. “Sorry…”

Pearl leaned down to give him a maternal hug. “Steven, you shouldn’t be sorry, you want to help, but as one of your guardians I have to make the decision on whether or not it’s alright for you to get involved with my business, and I think it’s healthier for you if you stay here, do your homework, and talk to Connie. It sure would be healthier for me if I could do that…” She trailed off with a grin.

“But-”

“But if one of us has to do it, it should be me.” Pearl told him, her caring voice underlayed with steel that made it clear that she was not going to brook any arguments on this front.

As she stepped out, Steven sighed and went back to reading.  _ If they’d thought like that back when I was a kid, maybe I wouldn’t need therapy… no. No it’s not their fault, they loved me, the gems, dad, they all did their best. And now, I just need to get back to doing my homework.  _

The thoughts continued to hang in the back of his mind as he worked his way through his english reading assignment.

\-----

On her colony, Pink Diamond sighed as she looked through piles upon piles of documents and information, trying to figure out what sort of options she had, and finding none of them good.  _ Let’s see, at current production rates for new gems, without destroying the planet I will need twenty new colonies to match the yearly production of one of Blue or Yellows’ colonies, which means if we fight over things like “gems should be free” and “shattering is cruel and should be stopped” then I’ll be outnumbered… and so I need to convince at least one of them to be on my side. Which means I need to… _

_ I need to have a frank, honest discussion with Blue and/or Yellow about all the problems I have with the current way they do things.  _

She tensed up at that thought, terror running through her as she pondered the possibility. Outright fighting every other Diamond and their entire courts scared her less than the prospect of having a private discussion about a topic so close to her heart with the two who had haunted her thoughts and fears ever since she had returned all those months ago.  _ On the other hand,  _ she mused,  _ at least they aren’t White, if I tried to have this sort of talk with her, then… well, I don’t think that’ll work without Blue and Yellow on my side, so it’s a problem for another day. _

Staring out over the vast wilderness below, she saw a tree fall on the slopes of the mountain as her court began to clear out spaces in the forest for new gems to be grown, a living kindergarten with trees and bushes and other organic life surrounding each hole to serve as a visual representation of how much damage was done, which the Peridots in charge assured her would help them keep track of where to direct the tears of the Rose Quartzes assigned to the project, preventing permanent damage to the planet below them.

Shaking her head, she focused back on the topic at hand, despite her deep desire to not have anything to do with it. Stepping back, she approached her throne, preparing to reach out and contact the other Diamonds, only for her resolve to falter, and her movement to pause.  _ What am I doing, I shouldn’t jump into this, I need to do research, get together facts, things like that will convince Yellow, and for Blue I need… I don’t know, some pretty artwork that shows how great the end of the caste system is? What does Blue even like anyway, she’s so different now than she was before I left… I need to prepare, research, all that. Not point just rushing in and getting myself in trouble. I’ll put together a big presentation, like the ones Steven made at school with all those graphs and charts, yeah, that sounds great! I’ll have to ask around to get the data to make it, but it’s for a good cause. _

Having finished convincing herself to put off talking to the other Diamonds, Pink Diamond turned around and walked away from her throne and the Diamond Communicator inside it, heading down the stairs into her spire to gather evidence to sway the other Diamonds to her cause. However, she had barely left the room when a Tourmaline ran up to her and began talking about a problem with the production of crystal-metal for the hulls of her colonies new ships. “Well that does sound like a problem, let’s go deal with that!” She said, pushing the thought of how to deal with the other Diamonds to the back of her mind.

  
_I’ll get to it when I’m done here, but this is important work, and it needs to get done!_ She thought as she started talking to the Tourmaline about the details of the problem, noticing out of the corner of her eye a small line of gems with problems waiting for her to talk to them. _I need to help them out, they’re my court, my responsibility, and_ _I’m sure they wouldn’t be asking for help if they didn’t need it, and besides, it’s not like it will take that long. I’ll just wrap this all up first._ She told herself as she put off the dreaded conversation even more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Pink is having some issues focusing. That part at the end was basically a rip off of my own thought processes when avoiding awkward talks.
> 
> On a less amusing note have, I have some news for you all. I have planned out the long term of this fic, and I think, unless something major changes, I will be wrapping it up in 20 updates or less, possibly as few as 10 if I make decent progress.
> 
> I don't say this lightly, but the fact of the matter is, my interests have wandered, my motivations for writing shifted, and I am honestly amazed I have made it this far, it's been more than a year since I started working on this fic, and I've had a lot of fun so far, but... well, I'm approaching the end.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who stuck with me this long, you're great.


	4. Chapter 4

Pink Diamond was not running from her problems. The fact that she had, despite several days having passed, not even started figuring out how she would confront the other Diamonds was all due to the enormous amount of work she needed to do, and anyone who said otherwise was clearly delusional. After all, if she was running from her problems, why would she be working so hard?

And yet, no matter how many times she told herself that, the words continued to ring hollow. The fact was, she was scared. The other Diamonds had for so long loomed in her thoughts, their judgement the stuff of nightmares even for her, the Diamond that supposedly was their equal, and the inevitability of confrontation weighed on her. In theory, if she was willing to stretch the permission she had received to experiment at this colony to the absolute limit, and to keep the others from ever seeing the true nature of what was happening on Earth where thousands of uncorrupted gems, including many former Crystal Gems, were building a new society that could be a model for all gemkind… but even with that secret kept, the vast majority of the gem species would continue to suffer under the strict, merciless laws of the other Diamonds, and if she truly cared about them all, didn’t that mean she had the responsibility to try to help them?

These thoughts continued to run through her mind as she tried to drown them in work, giving even minor issues the personal attention of a Diamond. But after a few days, she was running into a fundamental flaw with that plan: not everyone wanted a Diamond involved in their business, and she wasn’t an expert on enough of the inner workings of her colony to be useful everytime someone did want her help. Now, if she were Yellow or Blue, neither of those factors would matter, but considering the effort she had gone through to make it clear that her gems were allowed to think independently of her and make their own choices…

_ So this is what it feels like to be hoisted by my own petard.  _ She thought as she watched the pair of Quartzes walking away, determined to resolve their dispute themselves.  _ I suppose I should have seen this coming. _

Stepping away, she looked out the nearby window, taking in the uncoordinated but beautiful cluster of buildings that was her colonies major settlement, backdropped by the beautiful forested foothills below.  _ We should name this place… or I could stop running from my problems and deal with them like the Diamond I am supposed to be…  _ she felt a wave of discomfort at the thought, looking down at and seeing her hands, not the light near white she had experienced for thousands of years as Rose Quartz, but the darker, more pink shade of Pink Diamond.  _ That I’m supposed to be… why did I have to be created like this? _

Slumping against the window, she let out a sigh and shook her head.  _ There are so many things I’d rather be doing than being a Diamond right now, but I don’t have a choice right now, not with how many people count on me… not with how many people would be hurt if I didn’t. If it wasn’t for them, if I didn’t have to keep going for the sake of everyone else… But I do, and I can’t act like the naive,  _ stupid  _ young gem that I used to be. _

Stepping away from the window, she walked away, heading out of the room and to the stairs. Looking up, she ponders heading up to the throne room, her mind running through what it would be like if she just called up Blue or Yellow or both and just… yelled at them. Let out her anger and just dump her feelings, fears, and hatred on them, making it clear that not only did she hate them, she hated everything they stood for. The thought vanished from her mind as quickly as it had arrived, turning to look and step down the stairs. The vast central staircase wound through her spire from top to bottom, wide and well trafficked, and as she moved down she passed through a constant stream of gems of all shapes and sizes, greeting them politely as she continued onward, an unconventional destination in mind.

\-----

Arriving in a flash of Light, Pink looked out over the beach, both similar and different from the one she had spent so many years by back on Earth. Here, instead of large green hills, the beach was backed by a low cliff leading to a sprawling array of sand dunes, stretching inland as far as the eye could see, broken only by a single river, its banks surrounded by greenery as it cut through the desert to the ocean. The whole area was coated in sand aside from the green river banks and a few shrubs here and there, and after she had heard that her Quartzes loved to wrestle but could use a soft place to reduce injuries… well, the solution had been obvious.

The other Diamonds might not have approved, but as she looked at the Amethysts, Jaspers, Rose Quartzes, and even some non-quartz gems that had decided to see what all the fuss was about, she felt happy that she had done what she did. These gems were happy, no longer forced to spend days in and out “guarding” hallways that needed no guards, or escorting aristocrats that had never been in danger in their existence… except from the other Diamonds, but that was not the sort of danger that a Quartz escort could protect against. Shaking her head, Pink pondered how the other Diamonds had justified creating an entire class of rough, physical gems that took massive amounts of resources to produce and basically stood around looking good… the only times they were actually used for their intended purpose was when they acted as glorified pest control, and during the little war that Pink had started. It was honestly perplexing, but it was a directive from White, and Blue and Yellow would never disobey White Diamond…

Her angry thoughts trailed off as she reached a waterfall, the river splitting into dozens of small channels through the rock as it tumbled down the rocky, uneven slope. The sight of Quartzes laying on those rocks and occasionally tackling each other pulled a small chuckle from her. “ _ Here you go, have a place full of soft sand to roughhouse in!” I said, “thanks! We’ll go play on the rocks!” Ah… I love the way they think.  _ Pink observes mentally as she looked around, searching for the gem that, according to the organizational chart and absolutely nothing else, was “in charge” in this glorified play area for off-duty gems.

Soon enough, she found her, laying out under the shade of a wide-leafed tree sort of like a palm, half-buried in the sand, was the Pink Lace Agate known affectionately by the other gems in her court as “Sway”, clearly enjoying her time free from duties. “Hello” Pink said, stepping up to her a respectful distance away.

In contrast to how she would have acted back before Pink had revealed the full truth and begun her reforms, the smaller pink gem did not leap to her feet and salute, instead simply turning her head, the slight glow of shapeshifting showing that she was using a trick Spinel had taught her to keep her pose comfortable no matter where she looked. “Ah, My Diamond. Has something happened? I didn’t get a message that I needed to start my shift early.” She replied, pulling a small communicator out of her gem to verify before putting it back inside [1].

Pink shook her head. “No, trust me, if a situation came up where we needed you at the spire putting on a show for someone, I wouldn’t have been able to come in person.”

The Agate relaxes, the minor shifts that had made her ready to leap up and respond to whatever the crisis was disappearing as she slumped back down into the sand. “Alright. So why are you here? Don’t get me wrong, if you’re looking for a guide on how to relax I’ll help with that, you definitely look like you need it, but for some reason I don’t think you’re here for that.”

“No, I don’t have time for that… and if I did, I wouldn’t like being alone with my thoughts right now.” Pink replied.

Sway did not reply for a long moment, to the point where Pink was almost worried she was being ignored before the Agate let out a low chuckle. “Welcome to the club. I was there after your little ‘revelation’ a while back on the trip to Earth, took me a long time to come to terms with what it meant, with how many years I’d spent mourning, all the mockery I received as a failure, all the insults…” she gazed off into the distance, a tear forming in her eye for a brief moment before she snapped out of it. “I recommend a vacation and wrestling in the sand, it’s done wonders for me.”

“Well, I don’t really have that option.” Her Diamond replied, sitting down in the sand. “I just… I have no idea how to talk to the other Diamonds about… well, about all of this, my experiments, how I want to end the caste system, all of it! It’s just… I have no idea what to do, and I honestly don’t know if I should even do something, but if I don’t I’m terrified that not acting will hurt everyone who’s counting on me and…” She hung her head. “I’m not ready to be responsible for the future of our entire species. I’m nowhere near the right gem for the job.”

“You’re right.” Came the reply, the words surprising Pink Diamond out of her funk. “But there isn’t anyone else to do it, it’s not like there’s another Diamond out there who believes the same things as you and can get the others to listen to them easier than you can.” Looking around, Sway lowered her voice. “Let’s be honest, if the other Diamonds knew enough about him to understand that he’s a Diamond, things would be getting very bad very quickly. The only option is you, and that’s something that I can’t change, you can’t change… no one can.”

“Thank you for that, I wasn’t aware of the basic facts of this situation.” Pink said sarcastically.

“Well what do you want from me, again I can’t change the situation, explaining the facts as they are is about all I can do, that and try to punch one of the other Diamonds, but I don’t think that will do much good. I’m a soldier, and sure I’ve branched out a bit, what with having to command others, but I’m not a philosopher or some sage that can dispense wisdom.”

“I know… I know.” Pink says, holding her head in her hands. “I just… I don’t really know what else to do. I know that so much of this is just the consequences of my own actions, but I still wish none of this was happening.”

“So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” Sway said, quoting from memory a human movie about a magic ring that she and some of the other Quartzes had watched a while back. Looking over at her Diamonds face, she took a moment to enjoy the shock. “If you think that’s deep, you should watch more movies, there’s a lot of stuff like that in them.”

Pink, remembering how often Pearl complained about the inaccuracies and lack of consistency in the movies Steven had watched growing up, was actually more surprised that those words had come from a movie than she had been when she thought Sway had come up with them herself. “Right… it is a good point though…” She mused, laying back and mulling it over.

“Well, I might not be all that smart, but I know how to use a smart person's words at the right time, and that’s close enough, right?” Sway joked back.

Pink nodded, looking out over the waves crashing against the sand as she contemplated her life. “I suppose so. It’s definitely better than doing nothing but panicking.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... day late, but that's not to bad, I had planned on shifting my update date to Saturday anyway.
> 
> Beyond that... I'm sorry. I have a plan for how I want to end this fic, to at least give everyone who has followed me for so long some closure, but at this point turning that plan into writing is just tiring. I am dedicated to finishing this fic, but if you notice a drop in quality, that's why. I just don't want to be one of those authors that leaves a fic unfinished. I will finish, that I can promise.


End file.
